"Don’t tread on me "
By: David Reyes (Sebastian, FL)
I woke up this morning, made some breakfast and checked the weather on my phone, it was perfect. So I decided to go out and specifically look for pine snakes. After cruising for about an hour and a half I was about to call it quits when I stopped to get a baby snapping turtle out of the road. Shortly after picking up the turtle a gentleman walking the road stopped to talk to me. I proceeded to explain to him how I come out there looking for wildlife, but mostly snakes. And about 5 minutes goes by and he says “ there goes your snake right there! “. I turn around and about 60 feet away or so I see a fairly large snake crossing the road rather quickly. I start running towards the snake and when I got there I looked down in the grass and spotted the tail end of a Florida Pine Snake just about to disappear into the brush. Needless to say I freaked out and I’m still speechless. Only the second one I’ve ever seen in the wild and it came at 11:42am, my first encounter came at 11:47am of May 2019. For those who don’t know about these snakes, they are one of the largest snakes in eastern North America, spending a lot of their time underground hence why they aren’t seen very often. They live in burrows feeding mostly on pocket gophers, but also rats, rabbits, birds and their eggs. They can be very defensive and hiss (swipe for video), but rarely bite unless they feel threatened. Here in FL like many other species they rely on upland habitat such as the scrub or long leaf pine forests, and they’re dealing with major habitat loss mostly due to commercial & residential development, also feral hogs can cause a problem for adults, their eggs and hatchlings. I wish society/government cared more about saving species like this, but sadly it’s up to conservation groups to try and save what we have left here in Florida before it all becomes a concrete jungle.
Camera Information: Nikon d3300
Image Location: Sebastian , FL
Category: Live Wildlife